Standardizing the HDD Key on an Original Xbox - Nulling, Resigning Content, and More!

Every original Xbox console contains a hard drive with a hard drive key, with the intention of that hard drive being paired and locked to a console expecting that matching key. While a console with a custom BIOS can accept any storage medium and keys do not have to be matching, softmodded and stock consoles running a retail BIOS require a locked hard drive with a matching hard drive key. As these keys are randomized 32 character values, years ago it was determined for safety and ease of use that you could "null" a hard drive key to 32 0's. This means anyone who is aware that a lock hard drive's key has been nulled can unlock it easily without the console's EEPROM backup, and hard drives can even be swapped between consoles expecting nulled hard drive keys!

Unfortunately it was discovered that nulled out consoles and hard drives with a key set to all 0's would not work online with Insignia. However the process of "unoing" a key surfaced, setting the key to 32 1's instead of 32 0's, and it was confirmed to work online! This might be beneficial for some softmodded console owners out there worried about losing their HDD key, but there are a few precautions to keep in mind before making the decision to change the HDD key. This video will walk through the history of key nulling, benefits of it, downsides, precautions to keep in mind, and will show how to resolve several issues which might arise after changing the key!

Some personal thanks go out to a couple friends for their helpful information on this topic!

Harcroft:

Billy:

#Xbox #OGXbox #XboxModding

This video has been made with Fair Use in mind and has been created as an educational piece of media.

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Timestamps!

0:00 - Intro
1:15 - Background on Changing Keys
4:19 - Precautions with Changing HDD Key
7:37 - Prerequisites
8:42 - Updating to the Latest Xbox Softmodding Tool
13:32 - Standardizing Key with NKPatcher
17:01 - Resign DLC/Updates with Content Recovery Tool
18:37 - Discuss Save Resigns
22:44 - Outro

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Product Affiliate Links:

Original Xbox Console:

Video Hardware I Use:

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Downloads & Links!

Standardizing Your HDD Key Article:

Rocky5 Xbox Softmodding Tool:

WinSCP FTP Client:

7-Zip:

Content Recovery Tool:

Games with Non-Roamable Saves:

Original Xbox Gamesave Resigners:

How to Register & Setup Insignia for the Original Xbox:

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Social Media & More!

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Song Information
Artist: pyama
Song: slipspace
Soundcloud: literalbagoftrash

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Any links specifically listed as affiliate links give me a small monetary kickback at no extra cost to you and no influence on the content.

[OGX_Harcroft]

Great video as usual! Thanks for your service eduacting the community.

Two important little bits of information. FeudalNate's Content Recovery Tool can not sign Phantasy Star Online DLC, but those can easily be redownloaded through Insignia.

The Recovery Tool also doesn't run on Xemu, so you'll need to use an installer, Insignia, or sign your content on your PC and FTP it into the xemu instance if for some reason you change your Xemu HDDkey (why would you!?)

[Dempsey_]

Again, a perfect to follow tutorial for the og xbox. Thanks for this video.

[deansmith]

Nice OG XBOX day 😎Thanks for your work and updates.

[johnricharddowling]

Definitely the best tutorials. Many thanks MrMario.

[RDJ]

Another great video and knowledge in a simple and understandable way.

[burningtoys]

You know what's funny? I just ran xcat on all of my xboxes, and though i should probably softmod them all and look into what goes into an hdd upgrade in 2024. I remember back in the day having to hook my 80 gig to my pc and running a command line util. Looking forward to this one

[diabo]

Hello there i have mode chip smartxx v1 xbox 1.4 and works all and i have a backup of my eeprom, but wen i try to restaure with snartxx chip menu respore eeprom says eep rom is corruptet . Hdd show 000 key and i have the original key . But programs wont work to me all them says corruptes eeprom . Could i replacd the eeprom key on pc with fatxtool .

[zachhawkins]

I discovered you because of the Goldeneye watch tutorial!

[lukeschulz]

Great vid, thanks Mario, i do have a question though.
If my soft-modded console already has a upgraded 1tb HDD can i still do this? Chimp says to never unlock HDD but the NKpatcher will unlock it to Null/Uno the key? (yes im aware i should have nulled prior to upgrade :(
also which eeprom backup should be the main one i save? after softmod, after Null/Uno, after HDD 1tb upgrade, etc?
thanks mate!

[AdmrlSpeedy]

I don't understand why they don't just disable the check for a 0 key.

If all 1s works fine then the uniqueness of the key obviously doesn't matter to online play so why prevent 0s from working? Either that or if someone gets banned with all 1s, everyone with all 1s gets banned..?

[drewmg]

Is it considered best practice to standardize my HDD key before upgrading to a new HDD? I have no intention of going on Insignia.

[Evanihilation]

I was just looking at replacing mine, stay out of my walls

[dangerouscat]

Nice video. The biggest problem i had with the forza motorsport resigner that i tried everything from the internet to resign my forza save is if you want to resign the save from a zeroed hdd key it will not work. i found a guy on discord who helped me and resigned my save of forza motorsport with some minor problem (i had to go with each car on buy tune or paint than back out withouth modifing anything just to get the saving promt and then the cars are properly displayed in garage)

[Xpatriots]

I had to find a capable desktop tower once upon a time I screwed up my hdd

[devilinthewoods]

I've got like 5 Xbox's with dead Harddrives. What do people use to bring them back to life?

[DominiqueLEPAGE-syqr]

Hi ! Thank you for the video, you know how we can bypass the fatx limitation ?

[jeremyburo]

Theoretically, if I soft mod a stock Xbox following the tutorial to standardize the HDD then assign the same number to the HDD of my modded Xbox and Lock it, can I will able to transplant the HDD of my modded Xbox into the soft modded one ?

Thanks 😊

[seanifer]

Can I use this hard drive on another Xbox console once this is completed?

[LunatikLucas]

Might upgrade my hard drive later, just gotta buy a new ide 250gb drive

[trashcantyoutube]

I have a 1.6b Xbox and don’t know what sata drive to get.